Earlier this week, there was an article in the Entertainment section of the LA Times that stated:

Benedict Cumberbatch will return to the London stage next year to play the mopey prince of Denmark in a new production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” which will run at the Barbican theater.

…which struck me as kind of funny. Not Cumberbatch playing Hamlet – to the contrary, I’m sure he’ll be fantastic. No, I giggled at referring to Hamlet as “the mopey prince of Denmark.”

Mopey?

It seems like the kind of term most often used for children denied ice cream, or a teenybopper with an unrequited crush. Not Shakespearean princes, surely.

Although… if anybody had a reason to mope…it’d be Hamlet. I mean, think about it:

His uncle murders his father – total bummer. About a month later, Uncle Murder marries Mom – super awkward. He accidentally kills his girlfriend’s dad – oops. Then she goes nuts and drowns herself, leaving Hamlet to deal with her very angry brother. And if that wasn’t enough, practically everyone in Denmark thinks he’s going mad.